The LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center bar passage rate is not the highest in the state for only the second time in more than 20 years.

Of the 179 LSU Law applicants who took the 2012 bar, 134 or 74.9 percent passed, according to the LSU Law Center’s website.

Tulane University Law School is the only Louisiana school that had a higher passage percentage rate, with 75.7 percent of its 107 applicants passing, according to the website.

This is the lowest LSU Law percentage passage rate since at least 2008. Of the students who took the test in 2011, 86.5 percent passed. That is an 11.6 percent difference between the 2011 and 2012 rates.

The change of percentages could be attributed to the new compensatory scoring system, “by which a high performance on one segment of the exam could compensate for low performance on another segment of the exam,” according to the website.

LSU Law Center Chancellor Jack Weiss said alumni should not be disappointed by the scores because the school is studying the results to understand “the impact of the new rules.”

“I would urge [alumni] to keep in mind, however, that the margin between the top two schools was less than one percentage point,” he said. “This took place under a scoring regime that is brand new, as yet only dimly understood, and subject to ongoing review by the Louisiana Supreme Court as it gains actual experience with the new scoring system.”

• 2012 LSU: 74.9 percent Tulane: 75.7 percent
• 2011 LSU: 86.5 percent Tulane: 78.6 percent